'He'd be the bomb as the Phantom'
My instinct was right. Affleck's Batman was great, completely different to Bale's po-faced-growl-in-a-cowl. The Dark Knight trilogy took itself way too seriously, forgetting an important fact...that it's a comic book character. Affleck's Bruce Wayne/Batman is much truer to the comics. He's older, grizzled and a real powerhouse of a man. He uses guns more than gadgets and you get a feel of his brute strength in this. Sure he's still agile and flighty, but he's a boxer, not some black belt ninja. His fallibility is also clear. Under the suit he's still just a man and the film cleverly overcomes the obvious problem suggested by the title (how the fuck can Batman win?)
Jesse Eisenburg's Lex Luthor is also a winner. Full of ticks and complexes, he plays Mark Zuckerberg as a despotic psychopath. He's hellbent on taking down Superman for some reason that I didn't quite pick up upon but no matter, he's a decent bit of casting.
Superman for once is likeable, mainly by upping the surliness and keeping the do-gooding to a minimum, though he doesn't quite go the full stubble.
Wonder Woman does enough at the end to earn her own film and we also get to see a few more spin-off heroes in some nicely worked sub-plot cameos.
Amy Adams is wasted again as Lois Lane. Someone to be saved over and over. She has her chance for heroics at the end but is denied by the script, deeming two heroines to be one too many for this film.
The epic running time, car chases and crash-bang-kaboom finale go against it but I'd happily watch it again. We can also be thankful there's no Commissioner Gordon bollocks in this one. So I say welcome back Caped Crusader, and thanks for injecting some much needed fun back into a franchise that was literally dead in the water.
****
